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Amur maple

Kim Hyun-tae (pintail) / Wikimedia Commons - CC BY 4.0

Amur maple

Acer ginnala

Amur maple (Acer ginnala, accepted by Kew's Plants of the World Online as Acer tataricum subsp. ginnala) is a small, fast-growing deciduous tree or large multi-stemmed shrub from northeastern Asia - the Russian Far East, northeastern China, and Korea. At 15 to 20 feet it fits where a full-size maple cannot, and it earns that place with three seasons of interest: fragrant greenish-yellow flowers in spring, which is an unusual scent for a maple and an early nectar source for bees; small glossy three-lobed leaves through summer; and reliable, often brilliant red-to-orange fall color that arrives early. It is also one of the hardiest maples, tolerant of cold, wind, dry soil, and a wide range of pH. The honest catch, and it is a serious one for North American gardeners, is that it self-sows prolifically and has escaped cultivation to become invasive across parts of the US Midwest and Northeast, where its shade-tolerant seedlings crowd native shrubs and understory trees in open woods, savannas, and prairies. Several states list it as invasive or a noxious weed. Check your local invasive-species list before planting, and be prepared to remove seedlings if you do.

Climate fit: moderate (56/100)

Focal point

Structure

Container

Light

Full sun / Part sun / Part shade

Water

Moderate water

Mature size

15-20 ft tall · 15 ft apart

Hardy in zones

2a-8b

brutally cold to frosty winters

Native in Illinois

No

Related products

Cold hardiness

These values are location-based: this location's current hardiness is the baseline, and the 2050 value is a projected future climate for this same location.

Now

Zone 6b

Plotwright

USDA Zone 6b

-5°F to 0°F

Well-suited

2050

2100

Zone 7a

Plotwright

0°F to 5°F

Well-suited

In plain terms: This location has cold winters. Its winters are projected to keep warming through 2050.

✓

Well-suited today and still thriving in 2050.

Heat tolerance

Heat tolerance values are location-based too: heat days today are observed at this site, and the 2050 value projects this same location under a future climate.

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Where this plant fits

Suitable across 42 ecoregions - 37 climate-resilient through 2070 · 5 suited today. Best matches first.

Appalachian mixed mesophytic forests

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Appalachian-Blue Ridge forests

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Arizona Mountains forests

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Atlantic coastal pine barrens

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Blue Mountains forests

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Canadian Aspen forests and parklands

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Central Pacific Northwest coastal forests

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Central Tallgrass prairie

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Central-Southern Cascades Forests

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Chihuahuan desert

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What it needs

Conditions

Light

Full sun / Part sun / Part shade

Water

Moderate water

Spacing

15 ft

Habit

Small deciduous tree or large multi-stemmed shrub, 15 to 20 feet tall and wide, with a rounded to open, sometimes irregular crown. Fast-growing and adaptable; often low-branched and multi-stemmed unless trained early to a single leader.

Care tips

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Before planting, check your state or provincial invasive-species and noxious-weed lists - Amur maple is listed invasive or noxious in parts of the US Midwest and Northeast, and Missouri Botanical Garden warns it should not be grown where its seed can disseminate into natural areas.

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If you do plant it, get ahead of the seed: cut off the paired samaras before they ripen, and pull volunteer seedlings, to limit spread into nearby open woods, prairies, and fencerows.

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Site in full sun for the best red fall color; part shade is tolerated but mutes the color - and shade-tolerant seedlings are part of why it spreads.

Lifecycle

Planting

Plant in spring or autumn in full sun to part shade; it accepts almost any well-drained soil across a wide pH range and tolerates dry, windy, exposed sites. Full sun gives the best red fall color. Give it 15 to 20 feet of room, or train to a single leader if you want a tree rather than a broad shrub.

Transplanting

Transplants easily - it is tough and forgiving, unlike fussier maples. Move young container or balled-and-burlapped stock while dormant; established plants re-establish readily.

Early growth

Water to establish, then little care is needed. Growth is fast, often 12 to 24 inches a year, so a young plant reaches useful size quickly. Watch form early and prune to a single trunk if a tree shape is wanted.

Maturity

Reaches 15 to 20 feet in roughly 20 years and is long-lived and low-maintenance. Mature plants set heavy annual crops of paired reddish samaras that germinate freely nearby - the trait behind its invasiveness - so removing seed heads or volunteers is the main ongoing task in regions where it escapes.

Propagation

Very easy from seed, which is exactly why it naturalizes: samaras need only cold, moist stratification over winter to germinate in quantity. Softwood cuttings root with some effort; named cultivars are grafted onto Acer rootstocks. If you propagate it, do so responsibly and do not let volunteers spread into natural areas.

Similar plants

Browse lateral options with similar roles, light needs, size, or native-range overlap; these are not filtered for a better climate fit.

Podocarpus macrophyllus

Buddhist Pine

Buddhist pine (Podocarpus macrophyllus) is a slow-growing evergreen conifer native to southern Japan, southern and eastern China, Taiwan, and northern Myanmar, long prized in East Asian gardens and feng shui traditions. In mild climates it makes a handsome, dense column of strap-like dark-green foliage suitable for hedging, topiary, or a statement specimen; it also tolerates container culture well. The honest catch is its frost-tenderness: plants are reliable only from zone 7b (about 10°F) southward, and a late cold snap in zone 7 can kill established specimens to the ground. Layered on that is its pace - growth is genuinely slow, so a screening hedge planted today may take 15-20 years to reach useful height.

Tree

Full sun / Part sun / Part shade

Cordyline australis is a dramatic, palm-like evergreen tree native to New Zealand, where it ranges from North Cape to the southern South Island. In warm-temperate gardens (USDA zones 8-11) it makes an unmistakable structural focal point with its stout trunk, arching sword-leaf crown, and spectacular fragrant flower panicles in late spring. The honest catch is its scale and tenderness: it can exceed 33 feet in mild climates, its fibrous roots are expansive and difficult to remove, a single hard frost below about 23°F can kill or badly damage an established specimen, and the saponin-bearing foliage is toxic to cats and dogs - making it a gamble outside sheltered coastal or urban sites in colder zone-8 gardens.

Tree

Full sun / Part sun / Part shade

English yew (Taxus baccata) is a slow-growing, exceptionally long-lived evergreen conifer native across Europe (except Iceland), the Caucasus, Turkey eastward to northern Iran, and Morocco and Algeria in North Africa, valued for centuries as the definitive topiary and formal hedge tree. Its dense, dark-green needle foliage tolerates extreme shade and hard clipping, making it the premier structural plant for sculptured gardens. The honest catch is severe toxicity: nearly every part of the plant - needles, bark, seeds - contains cardiotoxic taxine alkaloids with no antidote, posing a lethal risk to humans, livestock, horses, and dogs; only the red fleshy aril is non-toxic, though the enclosed seed is deadly.

Tree

Full sun / Part sun / Part shade

Trident maple is a small to medium deciduous tree native to eastern China, Taiwan, and Japan, grown for its distinctive three-lobed glossy leaves, exfoliating orange-brown bark on mature specimens, and reliable orange-red autumn colour. It adapts well to urban conditions - pollution, compacted soil, restricted root space - and is a premier bonsai subject. The honest catch is its shallow, spreading root system: surface roots can buckle pavements and lift lawn edges within a few decades, so site it well clear of hard surfacing or install root barriers from the outset.

A large tropical evergreen tree from Asia and northern Australia, where it can reach 30 feet or more with a broad, rounded crown of arching, weeping branches clothed in glossy, pointed, 2-4 inch leaves. Across most of the world, though, it is grown as one of the most popular indoor trees, kept to 5 to 10 feet in a pot and valued for its graceful weeping form and dense, shiny foliage. It is hardy outdoors only in frost-free climates (USDA 10a-12b); everywhere colder it is a houseplant. Its single most famous trait is dropping its leaves dramatically whenever it is moved, drafted, over- or under-watered, or otherwise stressed - a habit new owners often mistake for death. The milky white latex in its stems and leaves is mildly toxic if eaten and is a well-known skin and airborne allergen.

Tree

Full sun / Part shade

Trachycarpus fortunei

Windmill Palm

Trachycarpus fortunei is an evergreen fan palm whose wild native range spans central and southern China, northern Myanmar, and northern India (with populations in southern Japan often regarded as an ancient introduction); it is prized as one of the hardiest palms in cultivation - mature specimens tolerating down to about -4°F. Its slender, fiber-clad trunk and bold palmate fronds deliver instant tropical drama in temperate gardens, and it performs well in cool, moist climates where other palms fail. The honest catch is twofold: the palm is dioecious (you need both a male and a female plant to set the blue-black fruits birds then carry far and wide), and in mild-winter regions of Europe it has escaped cultivation - documented as invasive in southern Switzerland and northern Italy and self-seeding in Atlantic Europe - so it can become a problem near natural areas. The persistent fibrous trunk sheaths also shed continually, creating litter that needs regular clean-up.

Tree

Full sun / Part shade

Educator packet

Plant packet

Amur maple educator packet

Amur maple (Acer ginnala, accepted by Kew's Plants of the World Online as Acer tataricum subsp. ginnala) is a small, fast-growing deciduous tree or large multi-stemmed shrub from northeastern Asia - the Russian Far East, northeastern China, and Korea. At 15 to 20 feet it fits where a full-size maple cannot, and it earns that place with three seasons of interest: fragrant greenish-yellow flowers in spring, which is an unusual scent for a maple and an early nectar source for bees; small glossy three-lobed leaves through summer; and reliable, often brilliant red-to-orange fall color that arrives early. It is also one of the hardiest maples, tolerant of cold, wind, dry soil, and a wide range of pH. The honest catch, and it is a serious one for North American gardeners, is that it self-sows prolifically and has escaped cultivation to become invasive across parts of the US Midwest and Northeast, where its shade-tolerant seedlings crowd native shrubs and understory trees in open woods, savannas, and prairies. Several states list it as invasive or a noxious weed. Check your local invasive-species list before planting, and be prepared to remove seedlings if you do.

Scientific name

Acer ginnala

Plant type

tree

Hardiness

2a-8b

Light

full-sun, part-sun, part-shade

Moisture

moderate

Spacing

180 inches